1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an internal combustion burner capable of producing high-velocity gas streams at high temperature. More particularly, the invention relates to burners that are used in processes for forming mineral fibers, in which the attenuation of the fibers results from the gas streams emitted by said burners alone or in combination with other means such as centrifuging means or spinneret-type attenuation means. For further details about fiberizing processes using a spinner (internal centrifuging), reference may be made to patents WO 99/65835, WO 97/15532, FR-2 677 973, FR-2 576 671, FR-2 524 610, FR-2 801 301, FR-2 576 671, EP-189 354 and EP-519 797. For fiberizing by what is called external centrifuging or fiberizing with a rotor, reference may be made to the following patents: EP 991 601, WO 97/0396, WO 97/0395 and EP 465 310.
2. Discussion of the Background
Ideally, this type of burner must meet a large number of requirements as closely as possible: It must be safe and reliable. It must also have the most stable operating conditions possible, especially having a flame that does not risk being blown out, a flame that is well contained and “attached” in the combustion chamber. It is also desirable for the burner to have the least possible inertia, i.e. for it to have operating conditions that are easy to modify. The aim is also for it to be of maximum durability, to be not too complicated to manufacture, and to be compact. Moreover, it must be able to be easily fitted to the fiberizing devices with which it is combined and easily tailored to the compositions of the materials to be fiberized (which compositions determine their hot behavior, most particularly their viscosity) and to the type of mineral fibers that it is desired to obtain (especially their dimensional characteristics).